


no time for crying

by Narci



Series: the Thing I Have to Be [1]
Category: Mo Dao Zu Shi, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Genre: (lowkey golden core fix it), Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst and Feels, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Juniors, Kid!WWX, M/M, Wwx protection squad, kid!lsz, night hunt gone absolutely right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:15:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27832876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narci/pseuds/Narci
Summary: Jingyi’s made a lot of silly mistakes on night hunts before. Everyone has, even Sizhui.But this may be the worst.(Jingyi stares harder in hopes that the two children will suddenly regrow to their previous sizes. They do not. Jingyi keeps trying.He whispers, “have you ever just like realized that you’re about to be literally murdered?”“Can’t say I’ve had that particular realization, no,” Zizhen replies with the air of a born badass. Jin Ling sighs.“Murder is wrong,” the child in black interjects wisely.Even at age six, Senior Wei is lecturing us, Jingyi thinks hysterically.)
Relationships: Jīn Líng | Jīn Rúlán & Lán Jǐngyí & Lán Yuàn | Lán Sīzhuī & Ōuyáng Zǐzhēn & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Jǐngyí & Lán Yuàn | Lán Sīzhuī & Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Yuàn | Lán Sīzhuī & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Series: the Thing I Have to Be [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037160
Comments: 97
Kudos: 952





	1. don't cry, okay?

It all started when Jingyi impatiently abandoned Senior Wei and Sizhui at their inn. He wanted to ambush Zizhen and Jin Ling at the border of the village before their party of approximately two (was it really a party then?) managed to catch wind of the Lans already in town.

And it all ends now, Jingyi despairs as he stares at the two figures in front of him. Both are swimming in their robes; red and white respectively. Or, at least, they should be, given the decrease in total body mass. 

“Oh, look!” Zizhen remarks excitedly, “they’re wearing little versions of their robes! That’s so cute!”

Jin Ling is hard pressed to ignore him, but even he can’t deny that a tiny, well dressed, approximately six year old cultivator is adorable, so obviously, two would be considered ‘cute’.

Jingyi stares harder in hopes that the two children will suddenly regrow to their previous sizes. They do not. Jingyi keeps trying. 

The one in white starts bawling, and finally Jingyi snaps out of his panic induced shock. He whispers, “have you ever just like realized that you’re about to be literally murdered?” 

“Can’t say I’ve had that particular realization, no,” Zizhen replies with the air of a born badass. Jin Ling sighs.

“Murder is wrong,” the child in black interjects wisely. 

_Even at age six, Senior Wei is lecturing us,_ Jingyi thinks hysterically.

-/-

“I’m A-Ying! What’s your name?” Jin Ling gives a particularly long suffering glance towards Zizhen and the deathly silent child in his arms. Baby Wei Wuxian has apparently no fears and is 100% okay talking the ear of any one of the three random teens whom he essentially kidnapped himself for. Baby Sizhui has more reservations than that, and he’s currently playing a game of ‘if you don’t put me down this instant, i’ll hold my breath until you do!’

“My name is Ouyang Zizhen, and that’s Lan Jingyi!” Zizhen gestures weirdly well even with his arms full of struggling Lan. 

“And what about Grumpy-gege?” Jin Ling is actually offended for approximately two seconds before he decides that grumpy is probably the least offensive adjective baby Wei Wuxian could’ve come up with.

“Jin Ling,” he offers as he shifts ‘A-Ying’ to his left hip. The one good part about the whole situation is the fact that whatever happened to his uncle and his best friend happened somewhat close to the inn Wei Wuxian used HanGuang-Jun’s money to rent two rooms in.

“Ling-ge...” Wei Wuxian ponders the name for a moment before smiling sunnily up at the nephew he’s supposed to be older than. “Does Ling-ge have a sword?”

Zizhen snorts, and Sizhui finally gives up his game in order to input his own thoughts on the subject, “A sword? So cool! Like the one Rich-gege bought!”

Rich-gege? Jin Ling thinks the name over for a minute or two as Zizhen enthusiastically responds. Jingyi is silent as the grave while he leads them towards the door to the tavern they’ll be staying for the night. 

Jin Ling will be the first to admit that he doesn’t know as much about Lan Sizhui’s past as he knows about say Zizhen’s or Jingyi’s, but he would still remember if Sizhui had a ‘Rich-gege’. Maybe the name refers to some Wen long dead? Well, whoever it is, Jin Ling probably won’t ever meet them. 

A yank on his hair pulls Jin Ling from his increasingly melancholy thoughts, “Ling-ge?” 

“Stop it!” He huffs as he pries his uncle’s tiny, grubby fingers from the strands. Jin Ling watches in horrified silence as a few break off in order to accompany the small invader in his retreat. 

Wei Ying freezes at the shout and goes rigid momentarily. “A-Ying is sorry. Ling-ge doesn’t have to carry A-Ying anymore, not if he doesn’t want to. A-Ying can walk by himself,” as he says the last sentence, he wiggles out of Jin Ling’s notably slackened grasp. With only about ten more feet left before reaching the safety of their rooms, Wei Ying manages an impressive retreat into the surrounding crowd. Within seconds, he’s entirely out of sight. 

Jin Ling sputters unintelligibly, and goes running after the six year old. 

“Shit,” Jingyi whispers.

“Shit,” Baby Sizhui agrees seriously.

-/-

Zizhen basically has to force the rapidly deflating Jingyi to resolidify and continue leading him to their senior’s temporary bedroom. 

Once the door shuts behind them, he calmly sets Sizhui on the bed. Sizhui looks oddly entertained by the whole process, seemingly cured of all his previous hesitations. 

“So, Jingyi, what brings you to town?”

Jingyi blinks once. Twice. 

“Really?” He complains loudly. “That’s the question you’re going with?”

-/- 

_“So, here’s how it really started.”_

-/-

Wei Wuxian was getting antsy, anyone could tell, and everyone in the Cloud Recesses knew. 

Normally, when Wei Wuxian gets antsy, Lan Wangji takes him on a week long ‘Night Hunt’, and he returns blessedly still and about as silent as he can be while not actively dead. However, this time Lan Wangji is too busy being HanGuang-Jun and Chief Cultivator and sort of Sect Leader, so Wei Wuxian suggests an alternative. 

(later, Jingyi remembers that the whole thing was Senior Wei’s idea in the first place and is marginally comforted)

The Lan Clan is known for their excellently presented, skilled, and honorable cultivators. They raised HanGuang-Jun and Zewu-Jun after all. Naturally, such a well respected clan receives requests for help with spirits and monsters and curses and Ghouls and and and…

As Chief Cultivator and (sort of) acting Sect Leader while his brother is in isolation, Lan Wangji is the one to process these requests, and as his devoted husband, Wei Wuxian helps him with such processing. Helping, of course, is a relative term closer in meaning to ‘distracting from’ then actually ‘aiding in the completion of’. Still, as a result of Wei Wuxian’s well meaning ‘assistance’, he’s always one of the first to hear about new cases of unexplained phenomenon in Gusu’s surrounding lands.

And when the extremely bored Wei Wuxian catches wind of a string of disappearances centered around an old temple smack dab in the center of spiritual rich farm lands, he robs his husband of the pouch of silver he always carries and grabs his two favorite Lan disciples to accompany him in Lan Zhan’s place.

-/-

“So, it’s actually mostly Senior Wei’s fault,” Jingyi pathetically finishes as he drops his head into his hands. The added weight causes his elbows to dig even deeper into the meat of his thighs, but what are a few bruises to a cultivator of Jingyi’s level? Especially when compared to the horribly agonizing death awaiting him when HanGuang-Jun finds out what he let happen to his husband and son. 

“Is that so?” Zizhen replies ambiguously. Sizhui shifts onto his lap in search of head pats and attention. 

“Oh god,” Jingyi groans as he lifts his head to stare at baby Sizhui. “He’s so cute? This is unfair, I was such an ugly kid.”

“That can’t be true, I bet you were adorable!” Sizhui grumbles about losing Zizhen’s attention, but he’s easily placated by Jingyi grabbing and swinging him around a couple times before putting him carefully back down.

“Do it again! Again!” Sizhui requests with glittering eyes that bore into Jingyi and crack his already weak self control. 

Jingyi spends the next two hours exercising his legendary Lan arm strength while worriedly waiting for Jin Ling to show up.

-/-

Jin Ling knows he’s not good with kids. He’s not good with people in general. But he really didn’t think telling his uncle to stop _once_ would make him take off to gods-know-where. If it was a full grown Wei Wuxian, ‘stop’ would’ve meant less than nothing when coming from his mouth. His uncle would’ve continued teasing him without a care in the world.

Apparently, baby Wei Wuxian has yet to learn that particular skill.

Jin Ling wishes the unknown depths of the Endless Abyss would swallow him up out of nowhere in order to punish him for his crimes against the cuteness that was ‘A-Ying’. That’s right, Jin Ling won’t admit it for the life of him, but Wei Wuxian was a really smol child! Harmless, friendly, and beyond anything else, soft. A word he’s never associated with any one of his uncles, let alone the _Yiling Patriarch_. 

In conclusion, if Jin Ling can’t manage to find A-Ying, he can kiss his pride, conscience, and future goodbye. 

-/-

“I can’t find him!” Jin Ling gasps out as he slams into the bedroom. The room is empty, and he is confused for a solid two minutes before Zizhen and Jingyi peak out of the room next door and see him awkwardly standing in the hallway.

“Mistress Jin?” Jingyi questions. Jin Ling is too busy catching his breath, but if he weren’t Jingyi would certainly have already been scolded into an early ascension.

“Wei. Wuxian,” Jin Ling gets out eventually, “I couldn’t find him. He’s just gone!”


	2. i thought we agreed to NOT CRY????

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which zizhen is mvp, and a-yuan is mvb (most valuable baby) 
> 
> wei ying isn't in the running b/c he's already RUNNING away lol

_{“Wei. Wuxian,” Jin Ling gets out eventually, “I couldn’t find him. He’s just gone!”}_

-/-

Jingyi: (ﾟДﾟ?)

Zizhen: ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )

Sizhui: “Xian-gege? Xian-gege! Where is he?”

“What?!” All three teenage cultivators stare at the child in between Zizhen and Jingyi’s legs.

“Xian-gege...” Sizhui trails off pathetically. Jin Ling is startled into a panic by the tears building up in his eyes. Can someone Qi Deviate out of the sheer power of a child’s emotions? Maybe Jin Ling should ask Lan Qiren the next time he sees him. He’d know. “Xian-gege!”

Before any one of them can adjust to the sudden change of attitude in their tiny leader, baby Sizhui sits on the floor and wraps himself around Jingyi’s legs.

“A-Yuan wants Xian-gege!” And then he goes silent apart from little breathy sobs that Jingyi can feel soaking into his robes. 

-/-

It was already getting dark out when Jin Ling arrived in a blast of anxiety induced anger. When they finally manage to calm ‘A-Yuan’, and make no mistake, it _was_ a team effort, the moon is high in the sky. He’s still sniffling lightly, (but that might be Jin Ling at this point, who knows?) and all three teens are exhausted. 

“Xian-gege is lost? You need help finding him?” That was actually Zizhen’s idea. In a stroke of almost genius, he had shouted that Xian-gege was in need of a rescue. Jin Ling and Jingyi had quickly gone along with it when they realized that Sizhui was finally quieting down. To be honest, it wasn’t even really a lie, Jingyi thinks tiredly, A-Yuan probably knows more about what happened and where A-Ying could’ve run off to than they do.

“Yes,” Zizhen confirms with a nod. A-Yuan seems to pull himself into some sort of determined state before hopping off the bed he had been gently tossed on after they managed to remove him from Jingyi’s leg. The wooden flooring doesn’t make a sound, but the Juniors do. They make many sounds; most are absolute nonsense.

“A-Yuan!” Zizhen interjects quickly. His skills with children are actually way above average, but even he is beginning to feel the strain on his nerves. Taking care of children is way harder when said children are determined to run off on their own at all times! Why did Sizhui and Senior Wei have to be such independent kids, ah? When Zizhen was six, all he did was nap and draw on his mother’s best sheets.

“Gege?”

“Xian-gege needs your help, but we can’t go now. It’s too late.”

Sizhui scrunches his nose in a heartwarming way and crosses his little arms. He observes the three of them skeptically, but after a look at the window, he sighs and jumps back up on the bed. “Hmph! Qing-jiejie says I can’t be out when it’s dark, so A-Yuan will wait.”

The words bring a smile to Zizhen’s face, but he, unfortunately, has more pressing matters at hand than how cute baby Sizhui is. Example; the missing Senior Wei.

-/-

After tucking A-Yuan in, Zizhen gestures for Jin Ling and Jingyi to follow him to the other side of the room, the half that’s blocked off by a thin folding partition. They wait for approximately three seconds to make sure A-Yuan is asleep before Jin Ling gets antsy and starts talking.

“What are we supposed to do? We lost my uncle!”

“Not we,” Jingyi interrupts smoothly. “You, Mistress Jin, are the one who lost Senior Wei.”

“Does it matter?!” Jin Ling growls. Jingyi snorts in response. 

Zizhen has developed a new sense of respect for Sizhui. Sizhui has to deal with these two by himself all the time, it’s a wonder he hasn’t killed them yet. Even Zizhen’s inner pacifist is getting ready to knock them out if only it’d earn him a second of peace to think. 

Sizhui is also undoubtedly the smart one in their group. Jin Ling is the angry, rich one. Jingyi is the loud one with opinions. Zizhen is the one who comes up with cover stories as needed. It works. 

But now, Zizhen has to be the mom and the cool older cousin. Sizhui is much better at ‘mom’ing than he is, but he should still be able to come up with a pretty decent plan. That is, if Jingyi and Jin Ling can _shut up_ for a second. 

“Would you two rather argue about fault than actually fix this? Because go ahead, I’m not the one who HanGuang-Jun sees frequently.”

They freeze, and triumphantly, Zizhen smiles in a practiced manner. This is not the first time he has silenced cultivators with a gentle threat, and it will not be the last. 

“What’s the plan?” Jingyi asks as if Zizhen has had his entire life to think of a solution to their current predicament. He has not, obviously, so Zizhen just cranks up his polite expression and gets thinking.

The look on his face makes Jingyi nervous and reminds Jin Ling of his deceased uncle. Neither are willing to aggravate their friend by asking questions, so a silence stretches across the room. 

Just as Jin Ling begins to fidget with Sui Hua’s hilt, a quiet grumble sounds out from Zizhen’s direction.

Jin Ling, “..?”

Zizhen seems entirely unaware of the noise he may or may not have just made, so Jin Ling side eyes the only other possible culprit. Jingyi glares at him and gestures in such a way that the words ‘why are you looking at me like that? It wasn’t me!’ are communicated perfectly. 

Jin Ling remains skeptical.

-/-

When Zizhen emerges from his hyperfocus with a plan forming in leaps and bounds, Jingyi and Jin Ling are sitting on the ground. They must have fallen asleep at some point because now, they’re leaning against each other in an incredibly harmonious scene of friendship(?). Just as Zizhen kneels down, preparing to shake them awake (he’s already committed the scene to memory in order to paint later), he hears a whimper from where he knows A-Yuan is sleeping. 

Abandoning his friends to continue sleeping on the ground like the children they sometimes act like, Zizhen walks over to A-Yuan’s bedside. Baby Sizhui is shaking lightly, and his face is twisted with discomfort. Zizhen lays the back of his palm on Sizhui’s forehead, but the temperature seems normal for a sleeping child. Before Zizhen can pull away, A-Yuan lightly catches his wrist with both of his soft hands, previously tightly held blankets dropped in favor of attaching to something much more comforting. 

“Gege?” A-Yuan whimpers, his eyes still clamped shut. He must be having a nightmare.

“A-Yuan?” Zizhen is on unsteady footing. Even though he’s had his fair share of nightmares, and he’s helped his sibling through just as many, would the dreams of a teen turned child be the same? What if A-Yuan is dreaming about the Wens or Xian-gege? What’s Zizhen supposed to say then, ah? Well… anything is probably better than nothing, so Zizhen uses his free hand to gently shake baby Sizhui awake.

“Gege!” A-Yuan’s eyes snap open. Zizhen feels his heart suffering from too many feels. 

“A-Yuan is alright. It’s safe here, okay?”

A-Yuan nods shakily and releases Zizhen’s hand. Zizhen takes the hint and pulls away slightly, though he’s still firmly sitting on the side of the inn’s bed.

“Does A-Yuan want to talk about his bad dream?”

“A-Yuan thought… A-Yuan thought that Gege was gone. That Xian-gege had left him alone. A-Yuan doesn’t want to be alone!”

Zizhen panics just a bit before pulling the shrunk cultivator into his lap. Baby Sizhui immediately hugs him and pushes his now wet face against Zizhen’s neck. 

“You aren’t alone,” Zizhen reassures quietly, beginning to rub circles into the tiny back exposed to him. “A-Yuan has me, and Ling-ge, and Jingyi. Soon, Xian-gege will be here, too. I don’t think that counts as _alone._ Do you, A-Yuan?”

A-Yuan sniffles a small ‘no’, and Zizhen continues petting the child with 100% of his focus. 

He doesn’t even notice when he starts to fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stay tuned for a-yuan's reverse shrinking next chapter, and the hunt for one (1) wild senior wei!


	3. not now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sizhui has the braincell, zizhen needs sleep, and some questions are answered.

_{Zizhen continues petting the child with 100% of his focus._

_He doesn’t even notice when he starts to fall asleep.}_

-/-

“So... let me get this right. You three left Senior Wei on the streets, alone, all night?” Sizhui was going to go bald from stress, semi-immortal cultivator or not.

Jingyi gulps, “Jin Ling tried to find him! We figured we could just head out in the morning and find him once there was better light…”

Sizhui is unimpressed by that plan, but it’s not like he can change what’s already been done. He sighs heavily, Zizhen winces in sympathy, “Senior Wei is six, and he’s been on the streets all night. We have to find him now, and I might have an idea of where he is.”

-/-

When Jingyi and Jin Ling wake up, they shove each other away at mach 10 speed. Hopefully, Jin Ling thinks with a grumble, no one saw them like that. Jin Ling doesn’t even know when they fell asleep. Sometime after Jingyi made the weird whine/growl.

“Where’s Zizhen?” Jingyi asks no one in specific as he jumps up and brushes off his very expensive Lan robes. Jin Ling follows in Jingyi’s steps, but it’s clear that he has less attachment to his doubtlessly even more pricey Jin robes.

“Probably with baby Sizhui,” Jingyi answers his own question before Jin Ling has the chance. The two cultivators make their way to the other side of the room, expecting to see a teen and a child most likely still sleeping.

That is not what they find. 

“My face feels so oily…” Sizhui whispers as he pretends to fix his somehow still perfect forehead ribbon. His now much longer hair is the messiest Jin Ling has ever seen it, and he almost has to look away. He doesn’t in the end, but only because he’s so confused as to why Sizhui is no longer fun-sized. 

“He’s big again!” Jingyi shouts. “Thank fuck!”

Zizhen, who is rudely awakened by the exclamation, “wha???”

-/-

They all accidentally slept in their full outer robes, so they don’t have to spend too much time getting ready before they leave in search of not-so-Senior Wei (Sizhui washed his face as fast as he possibly could). In less than an incense stick's worth of time, the four Juniors are heading to a temple which Sizhui insists holds all the answers.

“Oh, Great and Powerful Leader! Will you please explain?” Jingyi begs Sizhui as they walk. Jin Ling is trailing behind the two Lans with Zizhen by his side. Zizhen has to blink himself awake at random intervals because his cultivation isn’t quite to the point of being able to exist properly with only an hour of sleep, so he’s fallen back even though he’d usually be at the head of the group, ‘ooo’ing and ‘ahh’ing at the passing sights. For his part, Jin Ling has subtly been making sure Zizhen doesn’t run into anything. They work well together.

Sizhui pauses, sighs and continues moving in relative silence. 

Jingyi keeps asking.

Sizhui gives in, “It happened like this…”

-/-

“Eh? Has Jingyi run off again?” Senior Wei is lounging on a bed Sizhui believes may have once been neatly made. He effortlessly twirls ChenQing. 

“Yes, it seems like Jin Ling and Zizhen are also coming to investigate the disappearances.”

“Aiyah, how many people have gone missing for such a small village to call in two of the four Great Sects?” 

Even though it’s phrased as a question, Senior Wei isn’t expecting an answer, Sizhui knows this, but he still tries. “Apparently, the last one to go missing was a very successful merchant’s daughter, so she has been requesting help from even the most... ehmmm, ostentatious Sects.”

“Ahhh,” Senior Wei stops moving his spiritual instrument in order to stroke his recently acquired imaginary beard. “That explains it.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll just wait for the rest of the kiddies to arrive,” and then Sizhui’s dad curls up on his side like a cat, in prime position to take a well deserved nap. 

“Wait,” Senior Wei jerks up from his sleeping posture. “All the powerful sects?”

“Mn,” Sizhui agrees.

“Aiyah, you sound more and more like Lan Zhan every day…” Wei Wuxian trails off wistfully before remembering what he had been asking about in the first place. A glint of excitement, but also hesitance, flicks through his grey eyes, “So, are the Jiangs coming, too?”

“Sorry, Senior Wei, but I don’t think so.” Sizhui is never really sure how Senior Wei feels about Sect Leader Jiang. For example, he knows his father cares about Jiang Wanyin, but the demonic cultivator always seems sort of daunted when he hears his once-brother’s name or title. Jin Ling and Sizhui have talked about the weird relationship the two older men share, but even with both of them brainstorming together, they couldn’t settle on an exact definition, not to mention HanGuang-Jun, who makes relations even more strained with his icy distaste for the Sandu Shengshou.

Even now, Sizhui can’t tell if his words are a disappointment for Senior Wei, or a subtle relief. Either way, the lounging man in black pulls himself off the bed and hums in thought. There’s a bright grin on his face, but that doesn’t mean much, Sizhui knows. Senior Wei could smile like that even while pushing intestines back into his gut. It’s as much of a mask as HanGuang-Jun’s frosty, coffin face.

“You know what, A-Yuan?” Wei Wuxian asks with amusement dripping in every word. “I think we should get a head start on this night hunt. Wouldn’t it be funny if Jiang Cheng did come, and we had already solved it?”

Sizhui doesn’t agree with that in the slightest, but he knows that his father is determined to distract himself with a mystery, and who is Sizhui to stop him? “Of course, should we start at the tavern downstairs?”

“Hmm, I have something else in mind.”

-/-

“Something else?” Jingyi mutters as he listens to Sizhui’s account of the previous day. Normally, Senior Wei would always head straight to whatever-town-they-were-in’s best tea house or tavern. The man could unfailingly sniff out wine and gossip. It was an undisputed fact about night hunts with Senior Wei. Drinking came first, along with some information gathering, so why would he switch it up this time? What was different?

Sizhui had paused briefly to let the other three catch up with his words, but now he continues; his story faster and more focused.

-/-

“I noticed it when we first came to town. There’s something off about it, ah?”

Sizhui tries not to argue with Senior Wei as a principle, but even if he were prone to disagreements, he would be unable to refute his senior’s words. The temple in front of them was pulsing with some sort of energy, not quite demonic, but not entirely natural either. It’s also suspiciously well-kept for such a small village. “It definitely stands out from the rest of the village. Stone and golden bamboo? While the rest of the houses look like they would blow away on the first windy day to pass through? It doesn’t fit.”

Senior Wei nods once and loops his arm around Sizhui’s shoulders. He croons, “Ah, look what a good son I have! So cute! So smart! Such a filial child! I couldn’t have birthed a better one if I had tried.”

Sizhui holds back the urge to remind his father that ‘of course you can’t birth a better child, you can’t birth any child…’ because he knows that Senior Wei would take it as a challenge and the cultivation world would probably lose their Chief Cultivator for at least nine months. Also, he kind of likes it when his father compliments him... (needless to say, Sizhui leaves that out in his retelling).

“What do you think, Yuan-er? Should we go in?”

With a blush on his face and a fond smile, Sizhui says yes. 

-/-

“And then you were cursed????!!!??” Jin Ling finally runs out of patience for the story. JIngyi snorts at his outburst.

“Ummm,” Sizhui hesitates in a rare show of uncertainty, “it isn't actually a curse exactly.”

“What?” Zizhen slurs tiredly.

-/-

At first glance, the inside of the temple held nothing of interest. There was an average, but extremely clean, altar with candles. It lacks offerings of any sort, but maybe that has more to do with a dwindling population than with a lack of care. Based on how well lit the entire entrance and prayer chamber is, Sizhui guesses that there’s at least one person who is deeply dedicated to this god. 

“Do you notice anything about the altar, Sizhui?” Senior Wei asks in the lilting tone the Juniors refer to as his ‘teacher voice’.

Sizhui thinks for a moment, he doesn’t want to be wrong, but the only thing that stands out to him is the lack of offerings, and so that’s what he ends up answering with.

“Well,” Senior Wei breathes out the word, and Sizhui immediately knows that he had missed something, “that is very true, and the lack of food or incense is strange; however, that isn’t the big issue.”

“What is it, Senior Wei?” 

“There’s no figure. No statue. In fact, there’s no model of a god or goddess anywhere.”

For such an obviously tended and kept temple, a lack of the god’s depiction would never happen. Without a name stone, a statute, or an idol of some sort, the prayers uttered here wouldn’t be able to reach any heavenly being at all. Sizhui’s heart rate picks up at his father's serious explanation, “why not?”

“I would like to know the same thing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alrighty, soooo, i may have a bit of an issue with finishing things in one go haha
> 
> this was supposed to be a one shot, and then a two shot, but now its looking to be five chapters b/c i didn't want to write it all at the same time....
> 
> anyway, next chapter, you'll find out why they're kids, what changed sizhui back, and maybe where the f*ck wei ying is...


	4. crying is for the WEAK! (and i'm so weak *sob sob)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> zizhen is #done, but also #awake, so a win in sizhui's books... and senior wei made a friend? at some point?

_{“There’s no figure. No statue. In fact, there’s no model of a god or goddess anywhere.”_

_Sizhui’s heart rate picks up at his father's serious explanation, “why not?”_

_“I would like to know the same thing.”}_

-/-

“And then you were cursed???!?!?” Jin Ling asks once more with feeling.

“We weren’t cursed…” Sizhui tries again to explain. The other Juniors just watch him in stunned disbelief. “Okay, _maybe_ we were cursed.”

-/-

Senior Wei leans in to look for arrays or talismans that may be cause for alarm. Sizhui nervously follows. Something makes Senior Wei pause and suddenly tense up, Sizhui barely keeps from squeaking in alarm. Instead, he focuses on whatever just set his father off. Beneath Senior Wei’s slim fingers is an etching. Sizhui can’t tell for sure if it’s an array or not, but he knows it’s not meant to be there, and from his father’s reaction, it’s probably not a good sign. Senior Wei bolts upright, and immediately drags Sizhui with him towards the entrance, “Aiyah, that isn’t something we can handle by ourselves. A-Yuan, my darling son, we have to get Lan Zhan.”

-/-

“SOMETHING SENIOR WEI CAN’T HANDLE??????” Jingyi shouts while grabbing onto Sizhui’s shoulders. Sizhui nods awkwardly while trying to ignore the possible damage to his eardrums, he’s a cultivator, after all, he’ll heal. Probably.

“So, why are we heading straight to the temple, and not calling for HanGuang-Jun, like Wei Wuxian said we should?” Jin Ling questions, voice softer than usual because Zizhen has begun to lean on the Jin’s shoulder and doze off. 

“Because,” Jin Ling and Jingyi hold their breath, Sizhui does the opposite, quite loudly actually. “I don’t think she wants to hurt us.”

“She?”

Sizhui presses his lips together and bobs his head once.

-/-

“Leaving so soon? Without even saying hello?” A pleasant yet chilling voice calls out behind them. The temple’s doors swing shut on their own, trapping the two cultivators with whoever, whatever, just spoke.

Senior Wei recovers rather quickly and spins to face the new (possible) threat, “Pardon my lack of courtesy, Madam. We were just going to join with the rest of our party, we meant you no disrespect.”

For a moment, Sizhui worries that his father may have lain the charm on too thick, but then the woman in red and white robes smiles at them, and Sizhui knows that Senior Wei has once again managed to lay it on exactly as thick as it needed to be.

“The rest of your party?” Sizhui is sure she hasn’t blinked even once, but then again, Senior Wei hadn’t taken his eyes off her either. “Do you mean your little nephew, or your husband? Ah, what were their names….. A-Ling and Lan Er-gege, I believe.”

Sizhui can feel the displeasure rolling off his father in waves, and even Sizhui himself is getting a bit restless when faced with such a woman as the once in front of him. There’s just something _uncomfortable_ about her. Like how some very mundane object can remind someone of their worst moments. Except she’s the object, and Sizhui can’t help but be reminded of his time in the Burial Mounds with the Wen Remnants, and the sudden sting of everyone leaving him…

“Aiyah, have we met before, Miss? I don’t have the best memory, but for you to know so much about me, we must know each other somehow.” 

The woman finally looks away, but only so she can run her fingers along the array Sizhui knows is carved into the altar. She smiles, and he can see wrinkles around her mouth, smile lines, except… they look more like… cracks? In stone? 

Sizhui gasps, coming to a sudden conclusion, “Senior Wei, there’s no statue-”

“Because I’m right here.”

Senior Wei smiles widely at Sizhui, pride in his eyes, and he says, “Yes, I already know. That’s why I wanted Lan Zhan. The array over there is said to give spirit to stone, or, in other words, a soul to a statue.”

“If she’s merely a spirit, can we not just help her pass on?” Sizhui knows he’s missing something, and he knows Senior Wei is hiding something, but he doesn’t know if the woman knows whatever the ‘something’ is.

“No,” she mutters while dragging her hand off the table. Her fingers leave huge indents as they go, like a sword through sand. 

“If the array were done as it was originally intended, it would be a very simple fix. But… this one is altered. In exchange for a grave sacrifice, most certainly the caster’s life, an inhabitant much stronger is summoned. You could say that she’s…” Senior Wei trails off momentarily. Sizhui watches his smile twitch downwards slightly and his dark eyebrows pull together.

The woman has no issue picking up where he left off, as she proclaims easily, “A god.”

-/-

“WHAT????” Jin Ling screeches, forgetting about Zizhen momentarily, and the other teen immediately jerks awake.

“A god?” Zizhen mumbles after steadying himself against Jingyi instead. Jin Ling looks apologetic, but also mildly upset at the betrayal.

“That’s why I’m not convinced that this was... _is_ a curse. I don’t think she meant for anything bad to happen. Actually, I think she was trying to help us…”

“Ah, okay,” Zizhen agrees easily. His eyes are entirely closed at this point, and Sizhui’s other two audience members look at him with pity in their eyes. Sizhui just smiles and tries to finish his story.

-/-

“Exactly. And gods are entirely immune to demonic energy, making my cultivation methods effectively useless…” Senior Wei mutters the last part snidely in a not-so-rare showing of childish pettiness. He quickly follows the words with a laugh, his lips pulled back up, “But it seems I had nothing to be worried about, ah?”

His sudden shift in demeanor startles Sizhui, but let it never be said that Sizhui can’t go with the flow, especially where Senior Wei is concerned.

“Of course,” the goddess returns the smile with one of her own, even more hairline fractures appearing around her lips. “There was a time when we were close, wasn’t there? I would never betray a friend.”

“Aiyah, I feel like I’ve missed something important. Xian-Xian has a terrible memory, you see.”

She laughs loudly, and Sizhui feels a bit of the unexplainable discomfort disappear from his senses. It’s almost as if she’s consciously controlling the aura she puts out…

“One day, when we meet again, you’ll remember, but for now, I merely want to help out an old friend. An old friend _and_ his child, ah.”

Sizhui blinks in confusion. The goddess cackles and sends out a wave of energy with a blindingly quick swipe of her sleeve.

-/-

“And then you were cursed!” It’s Jingyi this time, and the exclamation is less of a question than Jin Ling had originally meant it. Zizhen is once more alerted to the fact that he is not, actually, in bed. He stares at Jingyi in devastation, and then he sits on the ground. The ground won’t shout at Zizhen.

“Not _cursed_ . But yes, that _was_ when we were turned into children.”

Jin Ling looks 112% angry that he wasn’t the one to call it. Jingyi smugly sticks his tongue out at the Jin.

Zizhen, who had moments ago fully lain back into the dirt, sits up quickly and, with startling clarity, says, “Wait. Then... how did you turn back? What did she say after that?”

-/-

Sizhui blinks again, suddenly much shorter and much younger.

“There we go,” the goddess says as she adjusts their robes to fit their new sizes. “This age should do the trick.”

Wei Wuxian-well, Wei _Ying_ reaches out to her, “Pretty-jiejie, where are we? Who are you? Are you my mama’s friend?”

“Bah, Pretty-jiejie? I like this version of you even better,” she laughs while allowing him to place his little hand in her own, and Wei Ying laughs too, even if he doesn’t know why exactly they’re laughing. He also completely misses her lack of response to his questions on her identity. “Didi, I have a mission for you, okay?”

“A-Ying will listen, Pretty-jiejie. What is A-Ying supposed to do?” 

Sizhui is just watching the two blankly, not quite understanding what he’s seeing. The woman looks at him suddenly, and the six year old does his best not to spontaneously burst into tears and wrap himself around her legs. Her smile does not help, and water starts building up in his eyes. However, before Sizhui gets a chance to really get going, she speaks again, “That’s Yuan-er, he’s a friend of mine, and I think you two should be friends as well, alright?”

Wei Ying nods without hesitation, like he had already been planning on befriending the other small child. At his agreement, the goddess continues, “Pretty-jiejie needs Ying-di to take Yuan-er and find a group of three _very_ pretty cultivators, once Ying-di finds them, come back, okay? Pretty-jiejie has something to say to them, ah.”

Wei Ying pulls on her hand gently before letting go, “Okay! A-Ying is good at finding cul-ti-vators! Mama and Baba are cultivators, too, Pretty-jiejie.”

“I know, Didi. Good luck, remember to come back!” The goddess reminds Wei Ying as he pulls Sizhui to his feet and kickstarts their adventure to find the three _very pretty_ _cultivators._

-/-

“Aw, she called us pretty?” Jingyi asks once Sizhui finishes. 

“Mn,” Sizhui agrees calmly, playfully adding, “ _Very_ pretty.”

“So,” Zizhen calls from his place on the ground. “Senior is with ‘Pretty-jiejie’ in the sus temple?”

“I think so.”

Jin Ling is shooketh when Zizhen easily stands up and starts moving in the direction they were previously headed, as if he wasn’t just napping in the middle of the road. Zizhen might actually be further along in his cultivation than they all thought… or maybe he’s just so tired, he isn’t tired anymore? That could be it, Jin Ling decides eventually.

“Are you three coming? We have to go find Baby Wei.” Zizhen doesn’t look back as he talks, but they hear him clearly all the same, and the other Juniors quickly catch up with him.

Sizhui looks at Zizhen with a confused sort of pride when he gets a chance. Usually, Sizhui is the one who has to keep them on track. Sizhui wonders, very briefly, if Zizhen is going to take his place as the mom friend, but then he gets a good look at the abject misery on the other’s usually energetic and peaceful face, and he knows the position is, unfortunately, still his. Sizhui laughs gently at the whole situation, and easily takes the reins of their group once more, “Zizhen is right, Senior Wei is just waiting to be found, and we only have another day or so before HanGuang-Jun arrives.”

Jin Ling: ლ(ಠ﹏ಠლ) 

Jingyi: Σ_(꒪ཀ꒪」∠)_

Zizhen: (ﾉ￣д￣)ﾉ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so! 
> 
> next chapter, the rest of the juniors get to meet the goddess, find out what made/makes them turn back, and why they were shrunketh in the first place
> 
> (quietly increases the chapter count by one)


	5. so, here's the thing...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> zizhen naps, then asks the good questions, and wwx gets found!

_{Sizhui laughs gently at the whole situation, and easily takes the lead of their group once more, “Zizhen is right, Senior Wei is just waiting to be found, and we only have another day or so before HanGuang-Jun arrives.”}_

-/-

“Ah! I knew you’d show up eventually. And Yuan-er is already full sized again! The past day and a half have certainly done you some good” The goddess catches a glimpse of Zizhen and lightly grimaces. Zizhen is clearly no longer paying attention to any of them, and if one looks closely, may actually be sleep walking… his eyes certainly aren’t open any more. “Most of you…”

Jingyi glares reproachfully, still stressing about HanGuang-Jun’s apparently imminent arrival. Jin Ling merely scoffs. The goddess adds, “Hm, okay. Sizhui, _you_ look well.”

Sizhui laughs and sends the other Juniors, minus the corpse-like Zizhen, a look of reproach. He then glances around in search of Senior Wei. The goddess catches the movement however, and quickly questions him. “What could Yuan-er possibly be looking for?”

Jingyi laughs for .1 seconds, “Yuan-er!” 

Jin Ling smacks him with the hilt of Suihua. 

Sizhui ignores them, “This disciple was simply trying to find Senior Wei.”

“He’s not with you?” The goddess asks with an eyebrow raised. Miniscule flakes of stone flutter to the ground with the motion. The Juniors collectively choose to leave them unmentioned. 

“No?” Jingyi replies, quickly meeting eyes with Sizhui and then Jin Ling. “Shouldn’t he be with you?”

“Yes,” she easily agrees, even more flakes falling with the nod she gives.

“Good,” Jingyi says.

“But he’s not.”

Jin Ling sputters.

“What?!” Jingyi shouts.

-/-

The Juniors have created a sort of huddle in order to figure out what the fuck they’re going to do. The goddess has reassured them that Senior Wei is, in fact, within the village _somewhere,_ so they still have a chance of finding him before something bad happens. Well, something _worse._ Technically, being turned into a child kinda counts as bad, and that has already long been done.

“We have to find him!” Jingyi panics, in any other scenario, he’d probably be calmer, but this is about Senior Wei and HanGuang-Jun. If he messes this up, he will never recover. Jin Ling is beginning to look like he 100% agrees. Sizhui still seems oddly peaceful, and Jingyi is lowkey terrified of when their leader may lose his cool. 

“Duh,” Jin Ling growls. His hand is so tight around Suihua that Jingyi fears he may forever lose blood flow to his fingers. 

Sizhui takes charge, “We know Senior Wei isn’t too far, so we’ll be able to find him, okay? We just need to check everywhere. Jin Ling, you start back at the inn, and work your way inwards. Jingyi, start at the road leading to the forest. I’ll start at the opposite end. We should be able to box him in even if he’s on the move.”

“Wait,” Jingyi starts. “What about Zizhen?”

Sizhui smiles somewhat awkwardly, “I figured he could stay in the temple in case Senior Wei ends up back there after all.”

The Juniors can all hear the additional ‘and maybe he’ll be able to take a nap while we’re gone’ that the oldest refrains from actually voicing. 

“Ready?” Sizhui continues. 

Jin Ling bobs his head once and then huffs when he notices Jingyi also nods. 

-/-

In the three hours before the Juniors locate Senior Wei, many things happen.

One, Zizhen takes a nap.

Two, Zizhen realizes he’s effectively been left behind and then sulks.

Three, Zozhen actually asks some good questions.

-/-

“So… you turned them into kids?” Zizhen asks as he and the goddess face off. It might be a tense scene if they weren’t also laying side by side. After Zizhen had dropped like a fly, just moments after the other juniors left, the goddess had also decided to have a short rest, despite not actually needing sleep. 

She nods, but honestly, Zizhen is still pretty confused, so he adds, “Why?”

“Why?” The goddess responds.

“Why,” Zizhen confirms.

“Aiyah, why does a goddess do anything?” She slants a grin at the teenaged cultivator, “Because I wanted to.”

“Okay,” Zizhen draws out the word, clearly skeptical, “but like, what’s the purpose? Why did you just think ‘ah, I shall make them small’?”

The goddess looks up at the ceiling, conveniently hiding her stone face from Zizhen’s view, “Would you like to hear a story?”

-/-

In addition to those three events, a few others also occur.

First, a Sect Leader comes to check on a small village plagued by mysterious disappearances, bringing only a small number of disciples to investigate.

Second, a Chief Cultivator decides to go see his husband a day early.

And finally, a child meets a _very fancy_ ‘cul-ti-vator’.

-/-

  
“Wei… _Ying?_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> v v short chapter! sry! i've just been rly busy w/ work and maybe, possibly, another fanfic *gasp*
> 
> i am still planning on 6, so next chapter will be last chapter. 
> 
> stay tuned foooooooooorrrrr, 
> 
> one emotional (and very confused) reunion, a full grown wwx (well, sorta), and STORYTIME.


	6. Wei Ying is... Wei Ying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> zizhen hears an interesting story...
> 
> hanguang-jun finds his husbando...
> 
> and wei ying gets his body back!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright so... basically everyone guessed wrong about who found wei ying, but kudos to the one reader (from a much earlier chapter haha) who correctly guessed which lucky man would stumble upon our boy in the end!

-/-

_ {“Wei… Ying?”} _

-/-

“This story begins like any other. Well, sort of.” Zizhen blinks in understanding, and the goddess shakily continues, “A god is born. Well, not born… but made, I suppose.”

Zizhen nods encouragingly.

The goddess smiles and regains her confidence. “This god wasn’t particularly strong or ambitious, she just wanted to have some fun, fulfill some prayers, made take a nap or two,” that earns a light blush from Zizhen, and she grins, “because she didn’t care much for heavenly politics, this god was often given what some would consider less than desirable jobs, but she dealt with them easily for years and years. That is, until she was sent to cleanse an ancient battle ground that had long been steeped in resentment.”

“Steeped in resentment? By that… do you mean the Burial Mounds?”

“You’re a smart one,” she replies, not offended in the slightest that he interrupted her story. “Yes, the god was tasked with the cleansing of the Yiling Burial Mounds. She arrived at her destination expecting a job just like the others, but she didn’t get that. Instead, the resentment was much stronger than she, or any other heavenly official, anticipated.”

“And then what happened?” Zizhen carefully prompted.

“She was stuck. Caught in a loop of keeping her core safe from the resentment, but not actually being able to even slightly dent the resentment surrounding her. No other gods were sent after her because she didn’t matter. She didn’t have friends in Heaven, she only had distant colleagues. She wasn’t influential or popular. She was just there. So the god remained trapped by the resentment, unable to leave, yet still too strong to be overcome to die. Essentially in a state of hibernation, the god slept in the whispering darkness.

“Until one day, a bright flame lit up her world.

“Then, and only then, did the god reawaken.”

-/-

“Yes?” The tiny child replies. His hands are scraped and sluggishly bleeding. Forced to look up and up and up at the cultivator, Wei Ying seems even smaller than his actual size. Tiny. Smaller than even the first time Jiang Cheng met him.

“What happened to you?” The Sandu Shengshou whispers in horror, trying his best not to fall back on the anger that usually leads most of his interactions these days.

“Dunno,” the child offers with a light shrug.

-/-

“The god knew as soon as she saw the light that she was supposed to help the soul, and so she did. For the first time in a very long while, she moved. The god began to cleanse a small section of land for the soul to shelter on, she couldn’t do much as the resentment was still too strong, but it was enough for the soul. The flame that burned on and on was almost impervious to the resentment, it was unlike any golden core the god had seen before. This light was steady, but not the light of a golden core. It was not the light of a cultivator, but of a soul bound for heavenly feats.”

“And that was Senior Wei?” Zizhen gasps, eyes incredibly wide and 100% focused on the goddess before him. She laughs once, short and stilted, like she doesn’t really want to, but genuinely can’t help herself because of how ridiculous Zizhen looks. 

“Got it in one, Cutie. Now… where was I? Ah, yes.”

-/-

“Have you found him?” Jin Ling huffs out as soon as he runs into Sizhui. They’re in the center of the village, obviously having completed their own chunks of the town search. Jingyi is nowhere to be seen, but neither is Senior Wei.

“No,” Sizhui replies, eyes scanning the surrounding mid-day crowd. It’s not as busy as it would usually be because of the disappearances, but there’s enough people for it to be loud. Jin Ling glowers as one of the townspeople passes just a bit too close by. 

“Maybe Jingyi found him?” The older offers, ever the positive thinker. Jin Ling snorts, ever the non believer.

“Doubt it, or else he’d be here,” he mutters quietly. Then, suddenly, a flash of brilliant white in the corner of his eyes catches his attention. Jin Ling grabs Sizhui and drags him towards the color, “I think I found Jingyi!”

-/-

They did, in fact, find Jingyi. 

Along with a particularly blank faced HanGuang-Jun.

-/-

“Astonishingly, the soul didn’t block off the resentment like the god. The soul let it in. It absorbed the resentment. The god began to experience a sort of feedback from the energy mixing with her own core. Then, a link was formed. The god could sense the soul’s emotions—could hear his loudest thoughts. The soul repeated names. Shijie, Jiang Cheng, Lan Zhan… and the god could feel what they meant to the soul.”

She sighs lightly, pausing to awkwardly pat Zizhen’s head, like one would a small animal’s. 

“For days, the soul merely repeated names desperately as he fended off the harsher, distorted memories. Overtime, the flame grew darker, yet stronger all the same. From a vibrant shade of cherry to a deep wine red. The soul began to struggle more and more, slowly making it way out of the small patch the god had been able to slightly lighten. She watched as his power grew, as he took control of what had trapped her for so long, and she felt true admiration. Fondness. And longing. Longing for something other than the darkness that had surrounded her for so long.”

“So…” Zizhen trails off, blinking rapidly in thought. “Senior Wei saved you? You had to have left the Burial Mounds somehow since you’re here now. But why did you turn him into a child?”

“I was getting there! Just let me finish the boring part first, okay?”

-/-

“Why are you all,” Jiang Cheng gestures angrily, huffing silently as he tries to find non-aggressive words, “small?”

“Ummm, A-Ying met a pretty Jiejie, and she needed help?”

“So,” Jiang Cheng sighs. “She shrunk you?”

“Dunno.”

-/-

“What happened?” HanGuang-Jun asks, the question seemingly aimed at them all despite him only making eye contact with Sizhui. And boy, is it some intense eye contact! Jingyi sighs gratefully in his mind, at least HanGuang-Jun isn’t glaring him down like that! Sizhui can take a look like that relatively easily because he knows the Chief Cultivator will never hurt him. Jingyi, on the other hand, has no such assurances…

“I’m sorry,” Sizhui starts, head bowed. HanGuang-Jun gives him a look that seems to say ‘go on’. Then, he continues to tell his father everything that’s happened in the past day and a half. 

By the end of Sizhui’s explanation, HanGuang-Jun’s face is slightly pinched.

“Wei Ying is a child?”

“Yes,” the Juniors, minus Zizhen, confirm in synch.

“Wei Ying is lost?”

A short moment of hesitation, and then the Juniors once again respond in the positive.

“Mn,” HanGuang-Jun turns away, white robes fluttering with the movement. “Go to the temple. Will meet you there with Wei Ying.”

-/-

Jiang Cheng can feel a headache come on strong as he watches the young Wei Wuxian play with his tiny black and red robes. He still has no idea how the demonic cultivator was shrunk, but obviously Wei Wuxian has no idea what happened other than some ‘pretty Jiejie’ being involved.

“Okay,” the Sect Leader grinds out through clenched teeth, “bring me to your Pretty-jiejie, ah?”

“Ummm, A-Ying doesn’t know where the temple is! A-Ying forgot! A-Ying is sorry, mister cul-ti-vator…” Tiny Wei Wuxian droops as he admits why he’s been wandering around in a daze for the past while. Jiang Cheng sighs again, softer this time, and picks his tiny brother up. 

“A-Ying mentioned a temple? We should be able to find that easi-“

“Jiang Wanyin!” 

“Wha?” A-Ying proclaims in confusion as he twists his head, hair ribbon somehow managing to hit Jiang Cheng right in the eye. 

-/-

“After around three months that stretched like particularly lazy cats, the soul freed itself, leaving the god behind. Faced with endless darkness once again, the god almost gave up, almost let the resentment in. Almost became one with the force that had tortured her for years, but she didn’t. Instead, she remembered the light that had motivated her to wake up. She remembered how the soul struggled, but refused to give in, and she felt weak. If a mere soul could survive and escape the Burial Mounds, why couldn’t a god? So, instead of sleeping, she cycled the energy through her own core, lightening and cleansing all the way. What seemed like centuries passed, but she kept trying, hoping that one day, she would be able to break free.”

-/-

“Lan Wangji!” Jiang Cheng shouted, unthinkingly tightening his grasp on the child in his arms. The action earns him a squeak, and he quickly sets his brother back down. Lan Wangji moves forward with a grace unlike any other. Wei Ying looks mildly confused at the whole situation, but he lets himself be held by the new cultivator without much fanfare. Something about the man in white must put him at ease. Jiang Cheng growls, “Why did you let him get cursed like this! Isn’t he supposed to be safe in the Cloud Recesses?”

“Wei Ying is not a prisoner, he is free to leave when he wants.” Wei Ying looks up at him in awe. Lan Wangji gives a tiny smile in reply. Jiang Cheng pretends not to see. 

“Well, you can bring him to the temple then! Obviously, he doesn’t need my help anymore,” the Sect Leader scoffs. Lan Wangji blinks once and nods shortly, face once again blank despite the dislike swirling in his eyes. 

“Mn.”

-/-

“However, before she could succeed, the light returned. It was smaller than before, flickering wildly, but no less beautiful. Along with the soul came others. Much weaker mortals that the god doubted would be able to survive very long at all in the darkness. But, against all expectations she held, the soul protected the mortals. He set up arrays to cleanse the land, spent hours absorbing excess resentful energy every day, and soon, the Burial Mounds were almost livable. Even when the god’s struggles were ultimately fruitless, she was still freed. Freed by the fire of a soul bound for heavenly feats.”

“Freed by Senior Wei,” Zizhen confirms uselessly. The goddess simply nods.

“Freed now, the god didn’t leave as she had originally intended. Instead, she stayed. She wanted to see, first hand, the creations of the soul. She stayed and watched as he protected innocents at the cost of himself. She stayed as he slowly succumbed to the resentment that had once tortured them both, and the god stayed until he was eventually torn apart by it.”

-/-

“I just don’t get it,” Jingyi says, tossing the sword in his hands up and down. Jin Ling wants to smack it out of the air, but his dignity as a Sect Leader will not allow him to. Too bad, he thinks wistfully.

Sizhui eyes the other Lan, and replies with a cautious, “what do you not get?”

“What turned you back? I mean like what prompted your abrupt regrowth?” Sizhui stops walking at the question. The three of them are only about two more minutes from the temple, so close that the building is in sight, yet when their leader stops, the other Juniors halt too.

“I think…” Sizhui trails off, looking down at his feet, cheeks beginning to turn pale pink. “Maybe it was because child me felt like he had a family, siblings. Like he wasn’t an only child constantly sheltered from the real world…”

“Oh,” Jingyi says. Jin Ling looks shocked at the answer. Sizhui quickly starts walking again.

-/-

“Was that when Senior Wei… died? You were there?” Zizhen’s mildly uncomfortable at this point in the story. When Senior Wei was known only as the Yiling Patriarch by the majority of the cultivation of the world, Zizhen was too young to really know what was going on. Senior Wei’s death didn’t affect him because Zizhen never knew him when he was alive. Now though, Zizhen thinks of Senior Wei as a part of his family, and to hear about his death… from someone who experienced it firsthand? It makes Zizhen want to throw up and then hug the life out of his senior… but like, not the literal life, because that would mean Senior Wei would be dead, and that’s like the  _ opposite _ of what Zizhen wants.

The goddess hums lightly, sitting up only to lean back on her hands and stare at Zizhen. She gives him a lopsided smile and simply says, “Yes.”

“Then why did you shrink him? Obviously, you care about him! Why would you put him in such a vulnerable position? I don’t get it.” Zizhen is planning on continuing until a creak comes from the temple’s entrance. Immediately, he jumps to his feet, only slightly stumbling from the change in positioning. He calls out, “Sizhui? Jin Ling? Jingyi? Did you find Senior Wei?”

The other Juniors round the corner, and Zizhen can instantly tell that they have not, in fact, found Senior Wei. Jin Ling and Jingyi look equally nervous and touched. Like something bad happened, but they received heartwarming news right afterwards, and now they don’t know how to feel. Sizhui, though, just looks embarrassed. He’s also the first one to respond, “No, but HanGuang-Jun is here now, and he said he’d find Senior Wei.”

“HanGuang-Jun?” Zizhen stutters out. The goddess lets out an excited squeak and hops up as well. She’s grinning wildly, a mischievous glint in her eyes, “HanGuang-Jun? Lan Zhan is here? I have to meet him! Is he coming here?”

Jingyi shoots out, “Yes! He’ll be here soon!”

“Oh?” The goddess turns to Zizhen and lightly bows her head, “I’m sorry, Cutie, if Lan Zhan is heading this way, I can’t just continue without him! My A-Ying’s Lan Zhan is someone I have always wanted to meet in person; his core is beautiful, and he’s so very important to A-Ying!”

“Ah?” Jingyi questions. “Continue what?”

Zizhen sighs lightly at his friend and offers, “She was just about to tell me why Sizhui and Senior Wei were turned into children.”

“I’ll still tell you,” the goddess assures, making little calming gestures with her hands, “I just want to wait until A-Ying and Lan Zhan join us!”

A loud boom echoes through the temple, an energetic giggle follows soon after, “Then you won’t be waiting for long!”

“Senior Wei!” The Juniors chorus. Senior Wei grins, his mouth now fully sized. Despite his new form, he’s still being piggybacked by HanGuang-Jun. The goddess returns his grin two times over, huge stone chips dropping to the floor. Her face doesn’t look nearly as flawless as it originally did, but she’s still beautiful in her own way.

“Have you realized  _ why _ I cursed you this way?” She asks, giddiness clear in her every word.

“Wei Ying is…” HanGuang-Jun pauses, setting Senior Wei down gently. “Wei Ying.”

“Aiyah, Husband! What is this?? I thought you said I was always Wei Ying!” Senior Wei is, despite no longer being carried by HanGuang-Jun, somehow managing to be completely plastered to his husband’s side.

“Mn,” HanGuang-Jun agrees softly, “Wei Ying is always Wei Ying, but now, Wei Ying is  _ Wei Ying.” _

_ “What does that mean?” _ Jingyi whispers to the other Juniors. Jin Ling looks away, Sizhui just smiles, and Zizhen lets out another resigned sigh.

“It  _ means _ …” Senior Wei begins.

-/-

“Wait!” Baby Wei Ying shouts, reaching a hand back at Jiang Cheng who freezes on the spot, allowing his dark purple robes to be grabbed. “Gege! Thanks for helping A-Ying!”

Jiang Cheng swallows lightly, letting a small smile stretch his normally downturned lips. An ironic look enters his eyes, “This Gege will always help A-Ying. A-Ying just needs to ask, hm?”

HanGuang-Jun is still facing the Sect Leader, but his eyes are clearly averted--letting the two brothers have a moment of privacy even if they aren’t truly alone. Wei Ying is oblivious to the action, but Jiang Cheng greatly appreciates it. Wei Ying nods quickly, three or four times in succession, before shyly whispering, “A-Ying will ask.”

“Wei Ying can rely on me as well,” HanGuang-Jun adds in a moment of uncharacteristic talkativeness, and then the two cultivators are witness to something neither one of them have seen more than a few times in their lives: Wei Ying’s tears. They’re fat little things, just silently rolling down his cheeks, and for a second, both adults tense like one would before a battle.

“A-Ying will!” The child sobs, turning his face into his future husband’s chest. HanGuang-Jun allows the movement with little more than a quiet hum. Jiang Cheng takes a tiny step back and can’t help but let his mouth curve just a bit more.

-/-

...and that’s when Wei Ying’s body grew  _ at least _ three times its size.

-/-

“That I’m back in my own body! Not Mo Xuanyu’s.” It takes longer than they’re proud of for the Juniors to figure out what he means by that, but once they do, a single question hangs in the air,  _ ‘but what about your golden core?’ _

“You see, Cutie,” the goddess picks up her explanation as if nothing’s happened. “The god had but one wish when she witnessed the soul be torn apart. She wished that she could’ve helped him. Could’ve given him an alternative to the darkness he wielded as a double edged sword. Given him a golden core to light his way as he had lit hers. This curse? It was the god’s only opportunity to do just that.”

“Feel my wrist!” Senior Wei excitedly waves his arm in front of Sizhui’s face, and the teen easily complies. 

Sizhui’s eyebrows eventually rise halfway to his hairline. “Your core is nearly ten times as strong as before!”

Jingyi gets a peculiar look on his face as he reaches out to copy the other Lan’s actions. He too seems shocked by what he finds, “It’s.. nearly as strong as HanGuang-Jun’s?” 

Senior Wei pulls away and slants a flirtatious glance HanGuang-Jun’s way, “Just give me time, I’m simply out of practice. Soon, I’ll be just as strong, ah!”

HanGuang-Jun just smiles softly.

fin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alrighty...
> 
> this is the end, sry folks... i know it prolly isn't what y'all wanted, but i sorta had issues with ending this... and it just kept getting longer... and eventually, i just cut it off
> 
> big points that may have been lost:
> 
> -the way to regrow is to be assured that you have people to rely on i.e. a fam
> 
> -the goddess not only did the curse to give wwx his body back, she also did it to give them a chance to resolve childhood trauma (cause both kids' families died when they were young)
> 
> -curse placed them in their og kid bodies, resizing just skipped them forward to the right age, cultivation progress and all. it didn't affect their bodies as outside sources would've (i.e. core removal, but it also wouldn't have been able to replicate externally motivated power ups, like say, the affect of a magical cultivation boosting artifact)
> 
> {any other questions, that y'all may or may not have, can be asked in the comments, and i will respond..}
> 
> i love you all, and i hope you didn't hate the end toooo much!
> 
> xoxo

**Author's Note:**

> let's just ignore the fact that i'm a huge liar, and that i still haven't finished STF...
> 
> i will... soon... i promise...


End file.
